Issue 261
Based on Luke 10:25-37
There is a tendency to assume that on the playing field you call work everyone plays by the same rules as you do. When pushed you’d probably drop this assumption but ask yourself if you were surprised when someone lied to you or stole from you. Lying and stealing are not in your rules, I assume, so you expect to be done to as you would do to…
If you want to carve out a path through the hills to the end of your career using honest, godly and upright methods, you may not only experience others using different rules, but reserving special rules for you. The closer you follow the Galilean Carpenter, the more intense will be your ‘singled out’ syndrome. The question on the Road to Jericho is asked as a test. At this point it is not entirely clear whether the test is benign in motivation. As the journey proceeds the clouds give way to clarity. The best you can say of the expert’s question is that it comes from mixed motives.
If you want to stand close to the Carpenter then you will take the same hits as him. You will be tested. Your work, your actions, your motives, and your whole life will be probed, quizzed, and analysed. In fact, if this is not happening you may not be standing close enough.
But don’t consider it strange – there is a conflict of worlds-apart playing itself out here. Test questions will come from all angles, from close up and far away and often when you least expect them.
Should you manage to handle the test well, give a good answer and move down the road, don’t expect sudden acquiescence from your hearers, a beating of breasts or a falling down in repentance at your words.
The next response comes out of “wanting to justify himself”. There is an inherent absurdity in this reaction but nevertheless you will encounter it regularly. People do not want to do the work of understanding the commands of God. They want to make up their own rules to live and die by. Like the first human, they are often just too lazy to ask whether “God had said” and what that meant. More commonly today, individuals may refuse even to allow the idea of God at all. The heart of the absurdity is in the attempt to justify the self. Given that each human story contains page after page of error, failure and rebellion, self-justification is impossible. It is only the Carpenter who can justify.
So expect tests during your working week. Expect rebuttals in your working relationships. Expect self-justification in team meetings and your every move to be monitored. And when you have gone right down the road you may still not have elicited a change of heart. The expert refused to use the word ‘Samaritan’ in his reply. He got the point but still hated the meaning. The full impact was too challenging for him even though there was no misunderstanding. Thankfully even though the expert asked his questions and continued his dialogue with the most mixed of motives, Jesus told the story anyway. Thankfully there were others listening to the story – and millions have listened, learned, and loved as a result. You never know who else is listening to you when you play your game by the rules.
Who’s the expert now?
Luke 10:25-37
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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